Me, too! The housing on the manual crank handle on ours is turning to powder and crumbling. Anyone know how to contact Fantastic Vent Company? Guess I'll have to dig to find the installation instructions, etc.

Just curious, what are those remote control kits going for? I might just upgrade ours to get the parts.

The remote upgrade kits normally sell from 175-225. I was in Camping World today and they have them on sale - Presidents Club price - 149.95. Don't think you'll ever find them any cheaper. Sale ends 7/31 - and if you want them to do the installation it is 50 bucks.

Me, too! The housing on the manual crank handle on ours is turning to powder and crumbling. Anyone know how to contact Fantastic Vent Company? Guess I'll have to dig to find the installation instructions, etc.

Just curious, what are those remote control kits going for? I might just upgrade ours to get the parts.

They have GREAT tech support and customer service. All you have to do is call them or e-mail them, let them know what's wrong, and I'd be willing to be that you have a new part or the whole assembly in your hands in around two days.

Can the arm be replaced from the inside or do you need to get on the roof?

Al - K4GLU,
The operating arm can be replaced from inside. The only thing I needed to get on the roof for was to remove the old rain sensor and install the new one, but I think that could have been done from inside too. I was waxing the roof at the time and just figured it would be easier to do the rain sensor while is was up there.

Thanks - just ordered 2. Decided to do both of mine. I'm not worried about replacing the rain sensor since I've got vent covers that I hope to continue using. Think you can use the covers but you have to open the vents manually. We'll see.

I really wish Fantastic Vent built a kit that gave me the 14 speed capability without all the other stuff. We have one fully manual vent and one "loaded" vent with the remote/rain sensor. To us, the best thing is all of those speeds - lets us run the fan slowly (but enough for airflow), keeping current low really, really low. That's awesome for boondocking - draws about 0.3 amphr instead of 0.8 for the manual fan on its lowest speed.

Or maybe this is the side effect of having a Trimetric battery monitor...or just me not wanting to have a second remote control in the trailer...

The main reason I upgraded was to get the reversible motor. I don't understand why Airstream didn't put that model vent in our Classic in '06.

Now I can have air circulate in the trailer without opening the windows. The vent in the back exhausts air out and I can set the vent in the front to bring air into the trailer.

We used both vents a lot while we were at the BASH II and we were boondocking and the batteries didn't seem to mind them. We ran them on low to medium speeds. I need to invest in some kind of battery monitoring system. We don't boondock too much in a season, but it would be nice to have a better view of the draw/load on the batteries. Are there any systems out there that are easy to install and won't break the bank?

Oh and I don't really put too much faith in the battery monitor that came with the trailer. I would much rather have an analog style meter or a digital readout.